Petting Zoo
by Cormag Ravenstaff
Summary: A take on the heart-to-heart Petting Zoo, with a romantic angle. F!CrossxElma. Twoshot.
1. Part 1

**For convenience, I'm going to use my current avatar's name, Fiora. This is NOT the same Fiora from the original Xenoblade Chronicles in this story.**

 **This is inspired by Elma's Heart to Heart titled Petting Zoo. It had a hilarious option for a choice that made me want to turn it into a oneshot. Unfortunately, Elma gives off the vibe in game of complete annoyance and passive aggressive anger. Here, not so much. In game Elma is killing my shipping dreams! XD**

* * *

Petting Zoo

Night descended over NLA, and Fiora found herself wandering the Residential District. She really should be in bed, resting for whatever missions Elma had in store for the next day. But sometimes her mind just felt to preoccupied to rest.

Amnesia was annoying.

Fiora's walk took her to the water plant, where she began to traverse around it.

To her surprise, she saw Elma crouching down by a small gap in the wall. Fiora's mim eyes could see far better in the dark, and let her discern that it was a cat Elma was petting.

Fiora stood where she was, watching the woman in red. In all her time with BLADE, she'd never seen the white haired woman relax.

It was humanizing and enticing at the same time.

Despite Lin's urging when they were alone together, Fiora never had the courage to admit her feelings for the colonel.

"I can kill gigantic unicorns with wings, aliens trying to wipe out my race, and dinosaurs that look like they could step on me without notice," Fiora muttered to herself. "But I can't manage to tell a woman that I like her?"

Fiora kicked the wall angrily, "Ugh, such a coward."

A craven woman she may have been, but it did not stop her from walking up to Elma and engaging her leader in conversation.

"Oh, Fiora," Elma said with surprise. "Fancy seeing you here."

"What're you doing at this time of night?" Fiora asked, crouching down like Elma was.

Allowing the smallest of grins, the colonel replied, "I could ask you the same thing. But I just saw this cat, and I had to give it some attention."

"I didn't know you were a cat person," the brown haired woman remarked.

Elma laughed, "Does it surprise you? I had a cat back on Earth. When I had a day off, it would lay in my lap as I'd read a book." She gave the cat another scratch behind its ears. "Do you remember ever having a pet at all?" Elma asked, turning to look at Fiora.

She thought about the question, and replied, "I think so. Maybe. It's still unclear, but the idea of it sounds familiar."

Elma smiled, one of the few times Fiora had ever seen her do that. The Reclaimer spoke, "If you don't mind a personal question, what would be your ideal pet?"

Several responses shot through her mind. One was obvious, the cat. That was sure to get her into Elma's good books, right?

But what if she was a dog kind of girl? Lying didn't feel right, not to Elma. Though being crippled with amnesia made it rather difficult to distinguish lies from truth.

Or maybe she could say…no, she couldn't say that. But…maybe the time to do it would be now?

"I'm more of an Elma person, actually," Fiora said, unable to keep the light smirk off her face. Hopefully her risky words would pay off.

Elma fixed her with a look that either was contempt or sheer puzzlement.

"That's…interesting," Elma said, her former humor gone. "You know I'm not a pet, right? Why would you even say that?"

Before Fiora could reply, Elma stood up and continued, "Perhaps this is a symptom of your memory from the crash. I'll go make you an appointment with the Mim Maintenance Center for a diagnosis."

And with that, Elma departed to do just that.

Fiora sighed and sat down next to the cat. It crawled into her lap, begging to be pet.

"Guess my luck will never change," she sighed, petting the cat for the rest of the night.


	2. Part 2

"What happened?" Lin asked from behind the counter of her kitchen.

Elma sat at one of the bar stools, which was a rare occurrence. Typically, she took a seat on one of the couches. But today for some reason or another, the colonel had her head cradled in her hands at the counter.

"The strangest thing," Elma muttered. She relayed the story to Lin, of how Fiora had told her she was an 'Elma person.'

Lin, of course, knew why Fiora had said this. The two of them were as thick as thieves, despite the somewhere around ten year gap between them (Again, amnesia).

"And what did you say?" Lin prompted, dicing vegetables with a cleaver. She tried her best to pretend she wasn't immensely interested in the topic at hand.

Elma, for once, was oblivious. She continued on, "I thought it might have been a symptom of her amnesia, or a problem with her mim. So that's what I told her."

"Really?" Lin said, narrowing her eyes.

"She thought I was a pet," Elma reasoned.

"You idiot! She was trying to be romantic!" Lin cried, waving her cleaver wildly. Elma leaned back to avoid the instrument's murderous path.

"Romantic?" Elma spoke, an odd pitch in her voice.

It was at that moment, Lin realized she had screwed up.

"Er…romantic?" Lin said, laughing a very fake laugh. "Who said anything about romance? I didn't!"

Elma stood up, "Thank you, Lin. I think I know what to do now."

She left Lin alone in the Barracks. In the silence of their home, Lin uttered a single phrase.

"Fiora is going to kill me."

* * *

Lin stalked Elma until she came across Fiora. Lin took a vantage point, and waited for the fireworks to start.

Unfortunately, she was out of hearing distance. But thankfully, Tatsu wasn't at her side to give away her position.

Elma and Fiora had decided to sit down on the edge of the Administration District, their legs hanging down over the Residential.

Minutes crawled by, and Lin eagerly awaited something to happen. With the impatience of a thirteen year old, those minutes felt like hours.

Finally, Lin watched Fiora lean on Elma's shoulder. Without a second of hesitation, she took a picture with her communication device.

They looked adorable! Lin had to do her best no to scream that aloud.

She sent the picture to Fiora with the caption, 'Nice work!'

Though if she hadn't been distracted in the act of sending the picture, she would have seen the two kiss.


End file.
